As we progress on with advanced technology, competition has become stiff with more smartphone companies coming up. On Monday, the Justice Department unsealed criminal charges against the Chinese tech giant Huawei, a top company executive, and some subsidiaries. The department alleged that Huawei stole trade secrets and misled banks about its business as well as violating U.S. sanctions.
However, Huawei, in a statement denied committing any violations as cited in the indictment.
The charges announcement came just before a planned crucial two-day round of trade talks between China and the United States that are scheduled to begin in Washington. Trade analysts predict dim chances of a breakthrough.
The indictments accuse Huawei of using extreme efforts to steal trade secrets from American businesses. This includes trying to take a piece of the robot from a T-Mobile lab. T-Mobile is active in the United States among other locations.
Meng Wanzhou is the executive charged, and she was arrested in Vancouver on 1st December. The U.S. plans to extradite her as they allege that she committed fraud by misleading bans on the dealings of Huawei in Iran.
David Martin, Meng’s lawyer in Canada, however, did not respond immediately on the matter. Meng is out on bail in Vancouver, but her case is set to resume in court as she awaits extradition proceedings to begin.
This is a shock as Huawei is among the world’s biggest supplier of network gear used by internet and phone companies which has been seen as an avenue for spying by the Chinese security and military services.
The company statement read, “The company denies that it is or its subsidiary or affiliate have committed any of the asserted violations of U.S. law outlined in each of the indictments. Huawei is, “not aware of any wrongdoing by Ms. Meng and believes the U.S. courts will ultimately reach the same conclusion.”
Huawei, according to the Prosecutors is accused of doing business in Iran through a Hong Kong company by the name Skycom. Apparently, Ms. Meng misled U.S. banks to believe that the two companies were different.
The acting Attorney General, Matt Whitaker said in a news conference that he had told high-level Chinese law enforcement officials that the U.S. needed law enforcement cooperation with China. The news conference had other Cabinet officials such as Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
Matt insisted that China should be concerned about criminal activities by its own Chinese companies and should take action on them.
Details were provided by the officials from a 10-count grand jury indictment in Seattle and a separate 13-count case from prosecutors in the Eastern District in the Eastern District of New York. This brings the counts to 23.
Among the 23 accusations, prosecutors claim that the company stole trade secrets, even the technology behind a robotic device T-Mobile used to test smartphones.
According to the prosecutors, at the beginning in 2022, Huawei had a plan to steal information from T-Mobile’s robot, Tappy. Huawei engineers took photos of the robot secretly, they measured it and even tried to steal a piece of it from T-Mobile’s lab in Washington. T-Mobile declined to comment on the matter.
Huawei was founded in 1977. Just like any other company, financing is needed for a startup. Whether through loans or personal savings there must be a plan on finances. You can get a look a review of peer to peer lenders on Crediful.com in case you need funding. The actual net worth of the company’s CEO Ren Zhengfei is $3.4 billion.
China and U.S agreed on 1st Dec. to negotiate for 90 days to dilute the increasing trade tensions. Currently, President Trump has postponed a scheduled increase in U.S. tariffs on $200billion of Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent to pave the way for the talks.
Eswar Prasad, an economics professor, and China expert at Cornell University said that the trade tensions between the two countries could create a partial deal in the coming weeks.
In this case, there’s no allegation that Huawei was working as a directive from the Chinese government. However, in the past, the U.S. government has singled out Beijing in corporate or digital espionage. It recently charged several Chinese hackers and intelligence officials.
The move that saw Meng arrested at Vancouver’s airport could have possibly led to the worst relations between the two countries since the Tiananmen Square massacre also known as the June Fourth Incident in 1989. It was a demonstration calling for some things such as freedom of the press, greater accountability, freedom of speech and many more.
Shortly after Meng’s arrest, China detained two Canadians, a move to attempt to pressure Canada for her release apparently. Later, a Chinese court also sentenced a Canadian to death in a retrial of a drug case which overturned a 15-year prison term which had been handed down earlier.
